An August Finish!

 Quilts have stories - did you know? I'm sure you do, if you quilt. We might remember buying the fabric or deciding the pattern, or the book you listened to as you stitched - that sort of thing. 

My most recent finish has a story, and for a little quilt, it might seem like a rather involved story, but that's just how it is sometimes.

This is the Key West quilt, aka Periwinkle. The story of this table topper began in March of 2019 when while on spring break, I bought these fabrics in a little quilt shop on the island. I didn't have a lot of suitcase space, so I limited my purchase to 8 fat quarters - 4 background and 4 different darker prints.

And they have lived happily on the back of my sewing table for well over a year. I wanted to use the cheerful little bundle rather than let it sit forever, but I could not find a pattern that suited me.

Now before I go on much further, I have to remain in Key West for a relevant little side note. Take a look at this picture from the courtyard of our little condo for the week. 

 

The design in the privacy fence reminded me of a quilt; and just like that I determined that these fabrics would be turned into periwinkle blocks. So earlier when I said I spent over a year looking for a pattern, to be more clear - I was looking for a suitable periwinkle pattern. Using the fabric was never far from my mind, as I considered a lot of various options and construction methods. When I saw this pattern in this book, I knew that was something I could work with. I purchased the book in March.

 

This spring we decided to take a road trip out to Oregon. Coronavirus had us postponing it for a few weeks, but we finally decided to go near the end of June. We would be driving for the better part of 12-14 days; I needed a project for all that car time. I would go absolutely stir crazy if I didn't have something to work on while a passenger on a trip this long. This urgency sent me to the sewing room to cut all the parts for the KW quilt. I knew I could hand stitch the blocks while we traveled - I would be making a vacation quilt while on a different vacation! (What a novelty.) The Key West quilt now encompasses our western US road trip. 

I wrote a little bit about my road trip stitching in this post, and I have continued to make the remaining blocks here at home. I had to find my scraps to cut a few more background pieces in order to come up with the 25 blocks I needed for the table topper.

From this point on, I credit Sharon for motivating me to finish. On Thursday when she was here for sewing, I stitched the 25th block and arranged them all on the design wall. With so few blocks, I decided to just go ahead and sew them together. I mean, why wait? Get'er done, right? At some point, Sharon offhandedly said something about how cute the back would be if I quilted around the periwinkle stars.  This totally appealed to me, and suddenly I was super-stoked to finish.

Small quilts like this are perfect for using all the batting scraps. I found some bits that I pieced together. Now what would I use for the backing? I had not thought this far ahead, but then Sharon again came to the rescue by saying "Use a Kaffe."

Good grief, YES I have gobs of his fabric, and surely something would work. And wasn't that a fun 20 minutes of digging through the tubs? Yes! Below you can see the fabric we decided on. All the colors are so representational of Key West, and while they don't exactly match the periwinkle colors, there is no issue as far as I am concerned about the choice.

I spray-basted the layers and proceeded to quilt. In no time at all, I had it finished and we were looking for binding options. I have a healthy stash of solid fabrics, and we found this royal blue which works just fine.

And that pretty much tells the whole story of my Key West quilt. Now let's see a few more pictures.

It is currently on duty on our screened porch table. Sure, she has some wavy edges and some questionable intersections, but I am not at all interested in checking out her flaws. I am reveling in a finish that has such a happy story. 

I am linking with Kathy's Quilts for her weekly feature, Slow Sunday Stitching. Hop on over to have a look around.

It's a beautiful day here in southern Ohio. Hope you all are enjoying a beautiful day where you are.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Project for the Road

Next week we will be taking off for a long cross-country drive which necessitates my coming up with some hand stitching project for car traveling. I know I could take Lake Effect or any number of cross stitch projects, but because I always like beginning new things, I have decided to do that, instead. Yeah. Begin something new. That's always a good idea. *grin*

The Key West quilt is a relatively new item on my bucket list. Like just over a year to 'marinate.' Last spring break, DH and I spent a week in Key West, Florida, and we did visit a quilt shop on the island. I wrote about it here.

One distinct memory of the garden at our hotel was the privacy fence which had cutouts that looks like the periwinkle block. When I bought the fabrics, I had this design in mind; that vacation idea from 2019 will be the hand work I do on our 2020 vacation out west.

I pressed the fabric and cut out a few bits just to make my first block. I wanted to get a feel for how easy it would be to stitch it in a moving vehicle. 

 

It was easy enough to stitch, and actually went together rather fast. I do believe I will enjoy working on this while traveling.

So prepping has been underway. I have still to cut about half of the background pieces. I have not done the math (surprises no one!) to see how many periwinkle blocks I will end up with. As is my norm, I will stitch until I run out of fabric. Then proceed from there.

The pattern I'm using is in the book Perfectly Pretty Patchwork; you can see a portion of the periwinkles on the cover. And, again as my norm, I am not following the pattern directions, which call for small and large periwinkle blocks. I am opting to make just large ones. I will figure out my setting later.

I traced out the two pieces needed and then traced them onto the fabric which I cut in widths to fit them.

I am set for a long, long car ride. I sure hope I make a lot of blocks. We shall see how diligent I will be. I know there will be lots to look at, so balance is required. I don't want to miss the sights!

Sharon is here today. She is working on using the Larkspur remnants in a quilt she is calling Larks Meadow. Stay tuned for pictures.

I am working on some items from the goals list: a baby quilt and a wedding quilt. There might be a quilt on the long arm before the day is done!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Two Mennonite Quilts

Each Wednesday this summer, I have been driving two neighbor girls to their job at a nearby "Amish" market. The girls are our neighbors and are Mennonite. Odd isn't it, that the store is owned and operated by Mennonites, yet everyone refers to it as 'The Amish Store'?

Anyway, the girls - young women, actually - Kathaleen and Betty, are sisters, and have been nothing but delightful to chit-chat with as we drive to work each Wednesday morning and back home in the evening. They have heard me prattle on about my quilting endeavors, and have shown such an interest. At one point, I even took a stack of my basket blocks with me to show them.

Last Wednesday was my last day to provide their transportation due to my university semester beginning this week, so they asked if I had time to stop for a quick peek at two of their quilts, made by their grandmother, one of which is a basket quilt.

Seriously! How could I say no? *grin*

This basket quilt is Kathaleen's. The block size is larger than mine, so I estimate hers to be 8 inches. The work is entirely hand-done. The quilting in the alternate blocks is strikingly beautiful.

Betty, left, and Kathaleen hold up the quilt for a picture. I could tell they were very proud of their grandmother's handwork. The fabrics are a variety of scraps and to Kathaleen's knowledge had not been remnant of dresses - just a lot of scrappy calico prints.

Interesting coincidence discovered through our weekly chit-chat to and from work - Betty knew the workers from the Ashland quilt shop I visited in May. Small world! Click here for that post.

Betty then invited me to see the quilt on her bed, and well, yes! So, here is another handmade quilt by their grandmother; the pattern is called Periwinkle. The quilting is not as dense, but still looks very attractive beside the pieced blocks. And speaking of the pieced blocks, all the periwinkles are made with checks, plaids, or stripes, which I find to be an interesting departure from the typical calico I would expect to see. I wonder if these fabrics were from discarded shirts or dresses.

I noticed that soft pink was used in both these quilts. I wonder if the grandmother did this with all the quilts made for the granddaughters, and, likewise, used soft blue in ones made for the grandsons. I wish I had asked. I will surely be seeing them again, so I will try to remember to ask. I also want to ask how many grandchildren there are, as they told me that every grandchild did get a homemade quilt from Grandmother. How nice.

Isn't it great to have friendly neighbors?

Today, Sharon was here for sewing. We both made good progress on our Roman Holiday quilts. I will show you Sharon's first, as her top is now put together. She will next be adding borders. I have about half of my vertical rows stitched to together with the sashing, and will continue plugging away on them this week.

Come on back for the Roman Holiday update!
Happy Quilting, Friends!